My first yoga class

Today I taught my first yoga class. It wasn’t your conventional class, two of the students were excluded before we got five minutes in, the class took place in a kitchen and the reaming two student just about managed to make it to the end without any cross words!

I knew this class would be a challenge, this unruly group of four would seem like an odd choice for your first ever class. But when your best friend asks for your help to teach her young son yoga following advice from a specialist you can’t say no.

This young boy has always been a fidget, has proprioceptive problems and finds it very difficult to be in his own body. (Since writing this he has finally had a medical diagnosis of high-functioning autism (Asperger’s)). But he wasn’t expelled – they were his sisters who came in to the class thinking they knew it all.

This young lad, who finds movement and the mind-body connection incredibly challenging knuckled down and tackled each new posture with gusto. I was especially impressed at his ability to sit quietly for two minutes at the beginning of the class – something his sisters weren’t prepared to even try to embrace and something he would have found impossible a year ago. He even managed a three minute savasana with the minimum of fidgeting.

I hadn’t expected to enjoy the class as much as I did but watching his eagerness to lean and determination to just give it a go was a lesson to us all.

I didn’t have a clue if he would enjoy it or find it frustrating, but despite how challenging he found some of the postures I could see a yogi lurking inside this young boy.

He has asked me to go back again next week and as long as he wants to learn I’ll be there with the same eagerness to teach him.